1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric vehicle, including a battery box which has batteries accommodated therein and which is mounted below a floor panel at a central portion of a vehicle body, wherein the supply of electric current from the batteries to a motor mounted at a front portion of the vehicle body is controlled by a control unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIG. 8 shows a conventional electric vehicle. A power unit 01 mounted at a front portion of a vehicle body is integrally provided with a motor 02, a reduction device 03 and a differential 04, and front wheels 08, 08 are driven for traveling of the vehicle by supplying power of batteries 05 mounted at a central portion of the vehicle body through a control unit 06 and an inverter 07 to the motor 02.
The above conventional electric vehicle suffers from problems in that lowering of the center of gravity of the vehicle is obstructed by the relatively high weight of the control unit 06 and the inverter 07, because the control unit 06 and the inverter 07 are disposed above the motor 02, and in that power lines 09 and 010 connecting the batteries 05 and the motor 02 to each other are disposed to extend via the control unit 06 and the inverter 07, above the motor 02. For this second reason, the lengths of the power lines 09 and 010 are extended, thereby making it difficult to provide an efficient layout of same.